KU 12th in attendance

By Staff     Jul 24, 2007

Kansas University ranked 12th in the country – and first in the Big 12 Conference – in men’s basketball attendance for the 2006-07 season.

According to official NCAA statistics, KU drew 293,400 fans for 18 home dates for an average of 16,300 fans – which is capacity in Allen Fieldhouse.

Kentucky led the way with an average of 23,421 fans, followed by Syracuse (21,516), North Carolina (20,693), Tennessee (19,661), Louisville (18,488), Ohio State (17,530), Wisconsin (17,190), Maryland (16,822), Arkansas (16,720), Illinois (16,618) and Indiana (16,474).

Oklahoma State ranked second in the Big 12 and 21st overall at 13,008 per game, followed by Texas (22nd, 12,969); Iowa State (25th, 12,489); Kansas State (26th, 12,301); Nebraska (39th, 10,584); Oklahoma (45th, 10,023); Texas Tech (46th, 10,010); Texas A&M (52nd, 9,812); Missouri (69th, 8,243) and Baylor (90th, 6,065). Colorado was not listed in the top 100 with its average of just 3,334 fans.

How important was Bob Huggins to Kansas State’s attendance?

The Wildcats drew 4,637 more fans per game in 2006-07 than Jim Wooldridge’s final season in 2005-’06.

¢Hinrich still on team: Former KU guard Kirk Hinrich and the other 16 players who participated in last weekend’s USA Senior National team minicamp have been invited back for official pre-Olympic qualifying tournament workouts Aug. 15 in Las Vegas.

Also, USA managing director Jerry Colangelo made it official Sunday, confirming ex-Jayhawk Nick Collison had been added to the list of prospective players.

The USA team will be sliced to 12 before opening play in the FIBA Americas Championship that will run Aug. 22-Sept.2 in Las Vegas. Just the top two finishers in the 10-team event will earn spots in the 2008 Olympics.

Hinrich scored four points off 2-of-7 shooting in Sunday’s 105-104 intrasquad scrimmage victory. He missed three three-point tries.

It’s believed he’s a bubble selection this year at best with Chauncey Billups and Jason Kidd also playing the point.

“I’m not concerned either way,” Hinrich told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “I felt like I played well last summer (in starting three of nine games at the world championships), and of course I want to make the team. But if they don’t want me back, I’ll go home and get ready for (NBA) training camp.”

U.S. coach Mike Krzyzewski liked what he saw in Hinrich last summer.

“He had some big games for us. He nearly won the Greece game by himself,” Krzyzewski said.

¢Recruiting: Olek Czyz, a 6-foot-8, 235-pound senior from Reno (Nev.) High School, is drawing a lot of attention at the Adidas Super 64 AAU tournament in Las Vegas.

Czyz told the Louisville Courier-Journal he’s considering Kansas, Kentucky, Louisville, Duke, Florida and Arizona State.

“I never did have a big head, and I won’t because all you have to do is not worry about the attention and keep trying to get better,” said Czyz, who averaged 18.3 points and 8.3 boards his junior season after averaging 10 points and six boards his soph year.

Originally from Poland, Czyz has been in the U.S. for three years.

“I am looking for a great coach, and I would like to play some minutes when I get there,” he said of college.

Courtney Fortson, a 5-10 senior point guard from Davis High in Montgomery, Ala., says he’s considering KU, Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Minnesota, Cincinnati and Florida State. Fortson, who averaged 19 points and seven boards last season, said he will not sign until the spring.

“I’m wide-open,” he told the Courier-Journal from the Adidas camp. “That’s why I’m playing so hard.”

¢Number talk: Former KU forward Julian Wright, who wore jersey No. 30 at KU, will wear 32 with the New Orleans Hornets since David West has dibs on his favorite digits.

Why 32?

“Well, I thought about wearing 32 even before Byron Scott made those Magic Johnson comparisons,” Wright quipped to hornets.com.

He’s referring to Hornets coach Scott’s comparing Wright to a “Poor Man’s Magic Johnson” on draft day.

“I was shocked, but by saying that I was a ‘Poor Man’s Magic,’ that made it a little bit easier to understand. If he had said something like ‘Magic in his prime,’ that would have been a lot different. If (Scott) had said that, I don’t even know if I could have played here,” Wright joked. “I appreciate that comparison, but I just want to get better every day. If my playmaking puts me anywhere near that category, then I will be happy.”

Wright told the Web site he didn’t envision having trouble surviving the NBA’s 82-game schedule.

“At Kansas, they stressed conditioning. If you are in good condition, you can think more clearly and not make bad decisions on the court,” he said.

As far as his pursuit of a degree in Communication Studies, Wright noted: “Had I stayed at Kansas, I would’ve graduated in the spring or summer of 2008, but now it’s going to take a couple summers.

“That was my plan going into college. It wasn’t random. I thought I’d be a lottery pick by the end of my junior year and also be able to graduate in three years.”

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